Myanmar has been considered as a location for Chinese military logistics facilities, along with some other Asian countries, according to the Pentagon report released last week.
The US Department of Defense report entitled, “Military and Security Developments involving the People’s Republic of China 2023”, said that China has probably considered having military logistics facilities in countries like Burma, Thailand, Indonesia, United Arab Emirates, Kenya, Nigeria, Namibia, Mozambique, Bangladesh, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands and Tajikistan.
The report said, “The PRC leaders and officials have increasingly sought to bolster the PRC’s relations with developing countries in Africa, Southeast Asia, and the Middle East; co-opt regional multilateral organizations such as ASEAN; and assert its status as the self-appointed de facto leader of the “Global South”.
A Chinese official confirmed in June 2022 that the People’s Liberation Army would have access to parts of Cambodia’s Ream Naval Base.
Satellite photos of the Coco Islands in Myanmar released in early this year showed the newly-extended airstrip now measuring about 2,300 metres.
A report of Chatham House, the London-based think tank, said that the improvement was no ordinary upgrade, and the hangars in this island were wide enough to accommodate “high-performance aircraft,” perhaps surveillance planes.
Experts also raised their concern that Myanmar’s Coco Islands could be turning into a naval intelligence gathering base, and China could get advantage from the the shared reconnaissance data over New Delhi. However, the Myanmar junta denied it, and claimed the allegation was “absurd”.
In 2018, China agreed to invest US$7.3 billion in a deep-water port in Rakhine State.
Kyaukphyu deep-seaport project in the western state of Myanmar is a back door of China to the Indian Ocean, and it is a component of the Chinese Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) in Myanmar.
Myanmar’s military chief Min Aung Hlaing has reportedly visited the Coco Islands 19 times since 2012.
